Cast chain and method of producing the same



L. H. MORIN CAST CHAIN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 29, 1965 Filed March 27, 1963 &

N, 54 55, mfon A 0 1//5 H M01? //v H TTORNE Y June 29, 1965 L. H. MORIN CAST CHAIN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 27, 1965 1 IWIII INVENTOR. Lou/5 H MOR/A/ HTTORNEY United States Patent O 3,191,376 CAST CHAIN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME Louis H. Morin, Bronx, N.Y. (125 Beechwood Ave., New Rochelle, N.Y.) Filed Mar. 27, 1963, Ser. No. 268,263

14 Claims.- (Cl. 59-1) This invention relates to the production of chains of various types and kinds, wherein the links are cast at a casting station in a manner to form one link directly upon the adjacent link and, then, inprocessing what might be termed the workpiece chain through a series of stations in forming end products comprising chains of predetermined and controlled link lengths.

More particularly, the invention deals with a method, wherein the stationsbeyond the casting station comprise a trimming station, what I term a working-in station, a workpiece feed station, a link counting station and a combinedlink easing and end product forming station.

The novel features ofjthe invention will be best understood from the following description, when taken together with theaccompanying drawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosed and, in which, the separate partsfare designated by suitablereference characters in each of the views and, in which:

, FIG. 1 is an exploded schematic view illustrating the several stations in carrying. out my method, diagram matically illustrating, 'at least in part, the means controlling actuation of the various stationsand showing parts of the construction in section and parts in elevation.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged detail face View of one form of chain which I employ and illustrating, in part, actuation of the tool by the link counting station in formingresulting end products, the tool being shown in section.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic face view of one of the dies at the casting station, illustrating the method of forming and joining successive links of the chain,-one formed link being shown in section and also illustrating the trimming station and the results ofa trimming operation.

FIG. 4 is a sectionalview on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3, diagrammatically illustrating the trimming tools, preparatory to trimming the link. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail-View, showing the action of a spreader tool in advanced state for producing the result illustrated in FIG. 2, part of the side members of a link being spread being diagrammatically illustrated in section. a FIG. 6 is an enlarged bracketeddiagrammatic side and sectional view of a modified form of chain and indicating 3,191,376 Patented June 29, 1965 ice 1, a face view of one of which is illustrated in FIG. 3. These dies have on adjacent surfaces thereof a primary link forming cavity 17, which forms each link 18, one of which is shown, in section, in FIG. 3, as formed in the cavity 17, and supplemental cavity portions 17 which receive the parallel side plates 19 of a previously cast link, as indicated at 19' in FIG. 3 of the drawing.

In initially forming the side plates 19, tapered pivot lugs 20 are formed on inner surfaces thereof; thus, when the plates are in the position, as seen at 19 in FIG. 3, when a cast link is formed, as shown in section in FIG. 3, the rounded cylinder portion 21 of the link is formed directly upon the pivot lugs 20, as illustrated at 20' in FIG. 3, thus forming the coupling or assemblage of the links of the chain. In this operation, there is no adhesion or fusing between assembled links.

At 22 in FIG.,3 is diagrammatically illustrated the injection nozzle forinjecting the casting material through the sprue 23 into the cavity 17 of the dies. This sprue forms a split ring portion 24 around one core pin 25, a similar ring 26 being formed around a companion pin 25 and these two pins are utilized in feeding the formed cast link from the cavity 17 for positioning in the cavity portions 17 and to locate upper surfaces of the rings 24 and 26 adjacent lower cutaway surfaces 27 of the dies so that, in upward feed of 25, 25' for repositioning, as shown in full lines in FIG. 3, the formed casting will be stripped from the pins and retained at the position shown in full lines in FIG. 3 with the pre-formed cast link in the partial cavity portion 17. This operation continues in forming what I term, for descriptive purposes, a workpiece chain 28. p

The workpiece chain 28 passes through the trimming station 11, suitably spaced with respect to the dies, at which station are a pair of trimming knives 29, shown in partial section in FIG. 4, which trim the rings 24, 26 from the cast link, the early stages of this operation being indicated in FIG. 4, and the result of this operation being diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 3. This trimming operation takes place adjacent the outer surfaces of the 1 side plates 19. a

part ofa sprocket employed in conjunction with such chain.

' FIG. 7 is a view, similar to FIG. 6, on a reduced scale exploded view, FIG; 1, and are represented by a casting station 10, atrimming station 11, a, working-in station comprising a first section 12 and a secondary section 12', a'workpiece feeding station 13, a link counting station 14 and a combined link easing and end product forming station 15. i i

At the casting station 19 are a pair of dies 16, FIG.

From the trimming station, the workpiece chain is passed through the two sections 12, 12' of what I term the working-in station. The portion 12 of this station consists of passing the workpiece chain 28 upwardly over a ball bearing supported roller 30 and under a guide shield, shown, in section, at 31 in FIG. 1. The workpiece chain then passes downwardly and upwardly around another freely rotating roller 32, these parts 12, 12 of the working-in station being spaced from the trimming station and from each other, as indicated by the dot-dash showing of theprojecting workpiece. By this passage of the Workpiece, it will appear that the links are flexed, first in one direction and, then, in another direction a number of times so as to ease coupling engagement of the links which have been formed one directly upon the other and provide a freer passage of the workpiece chain'through the workpiece feed station, as well as the station 15.

The feed station 13 comprises a combination sprocket and ratchet, the sprocket being shown at 33 and the ratchet at 34 rotatable about a shaft 35. Mounted on the shaft 35 is an arm 36 supporting, at its free end, a pin 37, on which is mounted a pawl 38 and the end of an arm actuating rod 39, which is intermittently actuated to feed the ratchet 34 a distance equal to a length of a chain link for intermittently positioning each link at the station 15 for purposes later described. The teeth 40 of the sprocket 33 are preferably formed of greater width at their base and reduced width at their outer extremities, so that, as the workpiece chain is fed upwardly around the sprocket 33, a suitably supported curved shield 41 arranged at one side of the ratchet and over the sprocket 33 will force each of the links downwardly over the teeth 40 and, thus, slightly spread the plates 19, so as to provide the de sired freedom between'the-coupled links for free action of the chain in the resulting end chain product formed. At this time, it is pointed out that the station 15 will also operate to insure this final coupling engagement, which would be the result of successive forming operations, first at the station 13 and, later, at the station 15, 'as will be described.

In order to control the link length of any end chain product formed, the counting station 14 is employed. This station employs a control or counting chain 42, including suitably spaced cam links 43, which pass over a sprocket 44, as diagrammatically seen in FIG. 1. Associated with the sprocket 44 is a gear 45 actuated through a worm 46 on what might be termed a cam shaft 47, having a cam 48 thereon, the slide actuated by the cam 48 being illustrated, in part, at 49 and controls a suitable air valve, not shown. At 50 I have indicated a slide supported in a suitable guide 51 and carrying a roller 52 at its free end, operating in connection with the cam links 43. 50 controls operation of another air valve, not shown, for operating the station 15, as later described, it being understood that, when a cam link 43 operates the slide 50, air will be passed through a pipe, indicated by the dot-dash line '50 of FIG. 1 to inject air into a cylinder of the station 15.

Now, turning to the link casing and end product form: ing station 15, atthis station are a pair of guides 53 for guiding the workpiece chain in position between means supporting a spreader punch 54 shown, in part, in FIG. 1 and, in section, in FIG. 2 and in plan in FIG. 5. The guides for this punch are indicated at 55 in FIG. 5, these guides being recessed, as seen at 56, to receive the side plates 19 of each link and are of sufficient depth and contour to compensate for spreading of the side plates 19, in themanner indicated at 19" in FIG. 2'of the drawing in disengaging the lugs 20 of one link from the recesses or sockets 21 formed in the cylinder portions 21 in the casting operation. This results in forming the final end chain product as seen, in part, at 57 in FIG.'2 of the drawing, which product can be dropped into a suitable receptacle. In finishing the end product, it will be understood that the outwardly flexed or spread plates 19" are then reunited with the cylinder portion 21 at the other end of the product chain 57 in the final finishing of the end product, this being accomplished by simply reversing the operation indicated in FIG. 2 and pressing the plates 19 inwardly to re-engage 20 with the recesses 21'.

The punch 54, intermediate the operation mentioned above, can also be utilized to further ease engagement of the links one with the other by a partial inward movement of the spreader 54, which is controlled by a stop slide 58 mounted on a piston 59 operating in an air cylinder 60, as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawing, extension of air to the cylinder 60 being through 50, as previously stated. The slide 58 in said figure is shown in operative position checking advancement of the punch 54. However, the advanced position of the punch 54 is indicated in dotted lines at 54' in FIG. 1 and in full lines in FIG. 5. It will be understood that, in this advanced movement of the punch, the piston 59 will be actuated to lower the slide 58, permitting free passage of the punch 54 to the position shown in FIG. and also indicated in section in FIG. 2 of the drawing. This movement of 58 is checked by a stop block 58'.

The diagrammatic illustration of the cam 48 in FIG. 1 of the drawing may be said to define a cam station 61 and, when the cam actuates the slide 49, air from the air valve will be directed to actuate the tools at the trimming station, as indicated by the dot-dash line 49' and to means for actuating'the spreader 54, as indicated by the dot-dash line 59" and also to means actuating 39, as indicated by the dot-dash line 39'. These operations take place in each cycle of operation of the machine in forming the successive links, thus, as and when the link counting station brings a cam link 43 into position to actuate the slide 50, 58 will be lowered and the spreader 54 is permitted to extend its full travel, as seen at 54' in FIG. 1 and shown in full lines in FIG. 5 to produce the separation of the side plates, as seen in FIG. 3. In other words, a predetermined number of links have been counted and this counting will be controlled by spacing of the cam links on the chain 42. i

It will be apparent that, in the controls of the air valve mechanism employed, the station 11 and the stations 15 will be actuated as and when the workpiece chain is at rest; in other words, the station 13 will be actuated slightly in advance of the other two stations in order that the workpiece chain would be at rest when stations 11 and 15 are actuated.

Turning now to the detail showing of the chain in FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawing, it will appear that the parallel side plates 19 have the tapered lugs 20 on the inner surfaces thereof joining the cylinder 21 in oifset wall portions 62. As will be apparent, the outer surfaces of the cylinder 21 are in alinement with inner surfaces of the side plates 19 and, in the operations performed at stations 13 and 15, slight clearances are provided between these surfaces for ease of operation of the links of the chain one with respect to the other.

In FIG. 6 of the drawing, a modified form of chain is illustrated, where each link 63 has two cylinder portions 64 spaced and joined by a Y-portion 65, including a plate 66 and outer surfaces of the cylinder 64 have plates 67, generally similar to the plates 19. The plate 66 has, on opposed sides thereof, tapered pivot lugs 68; whereas, plates 67 have, on inner surfaces thereof, similar lugs 68'. These lugs are arranged in the recesses 69 in the cylinder portions of an adjacent link. The chain will be formed in the same manner as formation of the chain in FIGS. 1 to 5, inclusive. In FIG. 6, I have indicated, in part, at 70 the type of sprocket which will be used in conjunction with the chain shown in FIG. 6, the sprocket having two annular and spaced circumferential teeth 71 to operatively engage the cylinders 64 of the chain, as will be apparent.

In FIG. 7 of the drawing is shown another form of chain structure employing links 72, each generally of the same structure as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, with the exception that these links are integrally joined and spaced in a supplemental cylinder portion 73 integral with ad- .jacent side plates 74 of the link 72. With this type of chain structure, a sprocket, such as shown at 75, will be employed, having circumferential side teeth 76 directly engaging the link 72 and a wider central annular tooth structure 77, which will engage the cylinder portions 73, as will be apparent.

Considering FIG. 8 of the drawing, here another form of link 78 is employed, wherein the cylinder portion 79 is generally similar to the links of the chain shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 and, instead of employing the side plates, the side plate portions 8 will include outwardly projecting cylinder portions 81, on inner surfaces of which are the tapered pivot lugs 82. It will be apparent that the diameter of the cylinder portions 81 is greater than the cylinder 79, thus the sprocket 83 employed in conjunction with the chain having links, similar to 78, will have larger side teeth 84 to engage the cylinders 81 and 'a central tooth 85 fashioned to engage the cylinders 79.

In the apparatus diagrammatically shown, the workpiece formed at the casting station may be said to comprise coupled members which are trimmed at the station 11 and eased at station 12, 12', the workpiece being fed at station 13 and this station includes means for partially spreading each member of the workpiece, namely 40 in combination with 41. Further, predetermined members measured by the counting station 14 are uncoupled by a tool 54 from adjacent members in forming the resulting end products at station 15. The tool 54 of station is also utilized in freeing engagement of the members one with respect to the other.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of producing chains of the character defined, which comprises forming links comprising spaced side plates having pivot lugs on adjacent surfaces thereof at one end of each link and a cylinder portion at the other end of each link at a casting station, forming the cylinder portion of one link upon inner surfaces of the side plates and said lugs of an adjacent link at said casting station in uniting the links one with the other to form a workpiece chain, trimming each of the links at a trimming station, then passing the workpiece chain through a working-in station, flexing the links of the chain one with respect to the other in several directions then, passing the workpiece chain through a feeding station, spreading side plates of each link slightly at said feed station, and then passing the workpiece chain through a link easing and end product forming station.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said last named station includes a timely actuated tool for spreading the side plates of a link to disengage the pivot lugs of said plates from the cylinder of an adjacent link in forming said end product.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein said spread side plates of an end product are joined with the cylinder at the other end of said product in forming the resulting endless chain.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the length of the end product chain is controlled by a link counting station actuating a tool at the product forming station in spreading the side plates of a predetermined counted link.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the casting station includes means for forming integral with the side plates of each link parts formed around a pair of core pins arranged in dies of the casting station, and utilizing said pins in moving a cast link to a position receiving the next successive cast link and returning the core pins to position receiving said next successive cast link.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein said parts cast integral with the side plates are removed from each link at said trimming station.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said working-in station comprises a pair of spaced freely rotatable rollers, over which the workpiece chain is guided in flexing the links one upon the other.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said workpiece feed station comprises an intermittently actuated ratchet, a sprocket on said ratchet, over which the workpiece chain passes, the teeth of said sprocket being, in

part, greater in width than the spacing between the side plates of each link, and said station including means for urging each link upon the teeth of said sprocket in slightly spreading the side plates of each link.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said last named station comprises a spreader tool movable between side plates of each link in easing engagement of the links one with the other, and to periodically extend the movement of said spreader tool to disengage the side plates of one predetermined link in forming the resulting end product chain.

10. The method of producing chains of the character defined, which comprises forming links comprising spaced side plates having pivot lugs on adjacent surfaces thereof at one end of each link and a cylinder portion at the other end of each link at acasting station, forming the cylinder portion of one link upon inner surfaces of the side plates and said lugs of an adjacent link at said casting station in uniting the links one with the other to form a workpiece chain, trimming the links of the workpiece chain, then feeding the trimmed workpiece chain through a series of stations in easing the engagement of the links one with respect to the other, separating a predetermined counted link from an adjacent link in removing a product chain length from said workpiece chain, and then joining said separated link with an end link of said product chain in producing the resulting endless chain.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein means is employed to control link counting in varying the length of the product chain produced.

12. An apparatus of the character defined, comprising a workpiece casting station for forming coupled members, an end product producing station"having means for separating predetermined members one from an adjacent one to form predetermined lengths of coupled members, means between said stations and adjacent to said casting station for trimming the members of the workpiece, and flexing means between said stations for easing coupling engagement of the members one with respect to the other.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein means is employed for controlling operation of said first named means.

14. An apparatus of the character defined, comprising a workpiece casting station for forming coupled members, means for trimming the members of the workpiece after leaving said station, a workingin station having means for flexing the coupled members one with respect to the other in several directions, means for feeding the workpiece through said last named station, said feeding means including means to spread parts of each member with respect to an adjacent member, and means at an end product forming station for separating one predetermined member from an adjacent member in forming from the workpiece an end product comprising a predetermined number of said coupled members.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 921,519 5/09 Dodge 59-8 1,865,275 6/32 Reyburn 59-35 2,221,053 11/40 Lavenstein 74-250 2,465,656 3/49 Morin.

2,555,754 6/51 Morin.

2,577,350 12/51 Morin.

2,687,651 8/54 Webb 74--250 3,068,519 12/62 Morin.

3,084,502 4/63 Herold 59-8 WILLIAM J. STEPHENSON, Primary Examiner. 

1. THE METHOD OF PRODUCING CHAINS OF THE CHARACTER DEFINED, WHICH COMPRISES FORMING LINKS COMPRISING SPACED SIDE PLATES HAVING PIVOT LUGS ON ADJACENT SURFACES THEREOF AT ONE END OF EACH LINK AND A CYLINDER PORTION AT THE OTHER END OF EACH LINK AT A CASTING STATION, FORMING THE CYLINDER PORTION OF ONE LINK UPON INNER SURFACES OF THE SIDE PLATES AND SAID LUGS OF AN ADJACENT LINK AT SAID CASTING STATION IN UNITING THE LINKS ONE WITH THE OTHER TO FORM A WORKPIECE CHAIN, TRIMMING EACH OF THE LINKS AT A TRIMMING STATION, THEN PASSING THE WORKPIECE CHAIN THROUGH A WORKING-IN STATION, FLEXING THE LINKS OF THE CHAIN ONE WITH RESPECT TO THE OTHER IN SEVERAL DIRECTIONS THEN, PASSING THE WORKPIECE CHAIN THROUGH A FEEDING STATION, SPREADING SIDE PLATES OF EACH LINK SLIGHTLY AT SAID FEED STATION, AND THEN PASSING THE WORKPIECE CHAIN THROUGH A LINK EASING AND END PRODUCT FORMING STATION. 